Awesome Total-Body AMRAP

Hi fitness lovers! My name is Sarah Jane, ACSM certified personal trainer and group fitness instructor and blogger at The Fit Cookie. I teach different group fitness formats (I even taught Zumba for 5 years!), and one of the group fitness classes I teach is an AMRAP class. I created this workout for one of those classes tried it out on my guinea pigs students. It’s a tough one, but fun!

This workout is a high-intensity weights and cardio workout performed AMRAP-style (As Many Reps As Possible). Everyone spends the same amount of time working out but the number of rounds you complete is up to you. If you are slower, you might get through 3 rounds, if you’re fast, maybe 5 or 6 rounds. Push your pace but take time to sip water and maintain good form for every exercise. If your form suffers, reduce your weights or slow down.

For this workout you will need a set of dumbbells (I like starting heavy then dropping the weight as I get tired), a jump rope, and enough space to do reverse lunges and burpees.

Beginners do 10 minutes and work up from there. My class did this for 25 minutes – I was in the middle of my 5^th set when the timer went off. 25 minutes seems short, but you need to make sure you are doing an adequate warm-up before the workout (preferably with some dynamic stretching) and a good cool down at the end. With those added in, you are looking at 40 minutes from warm-up to cool-down – definitely doable!

Try doing this workout one or 2 times a week for a little variety in your fitness routine. This one is high intensity, so I wouldn’t do more than 3 or 4 of these workouts a week. 25 minutes of this is plenty! Intensity and duration are related: the more intense your workouts, the shorter they need to be, and vise versa.

On a related side note, I have been reading about the 80/20 rule for workouts and fitness. Men’s Journal had a great article about this and I’m also reading about this in my RunFit study manuals. Here’s the idea: 80% of your workouts should be moderate paced, and 20% should be higher intensity (HIIT, AMRAP, sprint intervals, etc.). So if you’re working out 5 days a week, 1 of those days would be high intensity and the other 4 should be moderate/low intensity.

This concept seems to go against everything we are hearing these days! It’s all about push-push-push till you puke, but I can personally say that I have had burnout going 110% all the time! Not even elite athletes perform at their max for every training workout. It’s just not feasible for long-term performance.

What does that mean for you? Plan your workouts ahead of time and include this one as a high-intensity workout in your week, but don’t do this one every day and don’t feel like you have to keep up with other people at the gym to meet your goals. In fact, going 110% every day can make you a slower runner too, and hamper your fitness progress. Your workouts should be at varying intensities through the week, so high-intensity workouts are just a piece of the bigger fitness picture.

 

QOTD: What is your favorite type of workout?